Setup & Deposit

Add to your pot

Watch your pot grow

The Prepaid Funeral Plan: The Overview

We call the Good Funeral Guide Prepaid Funeral Plan GFGPlan. We have created it with in partnership with Open Prepaid Funerals Ltd. As far as we know there is nothing else quite like it on the market.

You can think of a GFGPlan as a pot marked ‘Funeral’ into which you can put up to £20,000 for a funeral, whether yours or somebody else’s. You can have a pot to yourself or you can share it with up to four other people who can also pay in up to £20,000. When you create a pot, you pay us a non-refundable fee of £195 for the first person and £95.00 for each subsequent named individual. This pays for the administration of the money you put into your pot for its lifetime.

The money in your pot will grow at an monthly rate (average 3.65% per annum from Oct 03 to July 2018) – a figure that could go up or down but has been pretty stable over the years. Your money is exempt from tax and does not count towards probate.

When you create a pot we ask you to record your funeral wishes. Your funeral wishes can be as sketchy or detailed as you like. We do not offer you a choice of package funerals. We do not even require your funeral to be provided by a professional funeral director although you will need to discuss this with us.

You can put a lump sum into your pot. Or you can deposit money in staged payments – monthly, for example. Or you can pay in money as and when you can afford to. You don’t have to reach a target figure. Whatever you pay into your pot will be there for your funeral.

Your money is invested under the supervision of the independent trustees of the Open Trust Fund. If there is a global financial meltdown, yes, there is a risk that you could lose some or all of your money. But remember: the Open Trust Fund has weathered more than one financial meltdown and is in robust financial health.

Unlike any other funeral planning company we make no deductions whatever from the money you give us to look after for you after the admin fees are paid.

If you want to dip into your pot for, say, a household emergency, you can do that – but only the money you paid in, not your money + growth. If you want to take all your money out, you can – but only your money, not your money + growth. This is a legal requirement. You won’t get your £195 back.

When you die, your personal representative (either your executor or your closest living relative) takes charge. We stand aside and let them do what they think best because we believe that no one should come between the buyer of your funeral and those with whom s/he chooses to do business. We simply pay out as soon as we receive invoices and receipts for your funeral after the funeral has taken place (we’ll need evidence of death and the funeral itself).

Of course we’re here to give help, support and guidance should it be required.

Every feature of the GFGPlan has been designed to put the consumer interests of you and your personal representative first. As a result, almost every one of its features is unique.

Is the Good Funeral Guide PrepaidPlan the one for you?

How could existing prepaidfuneral plans be better?

So you want to put asidemoney for your funeral?

A Word About Our Partner

The Good Funeral Guide has neither the resources nor the know-how to create a funeral planing product free of all the drawbacks of other funeral plans – drawbacks which we regard as anti-consumer and which, ironically, most funeral directors regard also as anti-funeral director.

Over the years we have invited owners of prepaid funeral plan trusts to design an ethical, consumer-focussed plan according to our own specifications – in vain. Just when we had all but given up hope we were approached by Open Prepaid Funerals Ltd. To our delight they were able to provide us with exactly what we wanted. As a result we are proud to be able to offer a prepaid funeral plan that puts your interests first.

We like Open because the way they work is calm and conservative – the highest recommendation for any business that has a financial responsibility to others. Although we like to maintain an arm’s length relationship with the funeral industry, the fact that one of Open’s trustees are experienced members of the industry pleases us greatly. They are all acutely risk-averse and anxiously protective of their reputations. They represent a healthy force for caution and prudence.